A broadband NMR instrument includes a receiver coil (observe coil) disposed to couple the RF signal emitted by the spin transitions in the sample to the preamplifier of the receiver subsystem. This coil is a tuned LC circuit with resonant properties adjusted by a capacitor network similar to the examples of balanced and unbalanced circuits of prior art indicated in FIGS. 1a and 1b. Idealized tuned circuits of this type produce a flat response over the designed range of broadband response with a single sharp absorption peak at the desired resonance frequency. Practical tuned circuits exhibit a more complex response due to distributed capacitance to ground for the coil. One result is the observation of another resonant peak at higher frequency. FIG. 2 shows the frequency response of a real circuit tuned for 100 MHz C.sup.13 analysis. The parasitic higher frequency resonance is further complicated when the coil is loaded by insertion of the sample tube containing a sample. The dielectric properties of the sample and sample tube cause higher frequency resonance to occur at higher (or possibly lower) frequencies due to the dielectric properties of the sample.
In NMR instruments a second high frequency RF radiation is commonly employed to perturb (for example) proton-C.sup.13 coupling. RF power for this purpose is supplied from a second RF source through an independent coil to perform the desired decoupling. The decoupler coil is disposed outside of the receiver coil in a typical system, that is, with the receiver coil between the decoupler coil and the sample.
The effect of a decoupler irradiation is attenuated at the sample by the shielding afforded by the receiver coil. When the receiver coil exhibits a resonance for the high frequency decoupler irradiation, that attenuation becomes quite substantial.
In the prior art, one way to minimize the attenuation due to the receiver coil consisted of constructed the decoupler coil from thin sheet conductor disposed very close to the receiver coil. The effective inductance of the receiver coil is then lowered in a manner similar to the effect of surrounding the receiver coil in a cylindrical conductor. The inductance of the coil decreases as the resonant frequency (.omega.=1/LC ) increases. A sufficient shift of this resonance beyond the decoupler bandwidth mitigates some of the losses of decoupler radiation. This effect is purchased at the price of a significant lowering of the Q of the receive coil which is undesirable.